The man in front of me gets the divider thing and places it on the conveyor belt between our groceries. Mine: hummus, baby corn, mange tout, red pepper, sunflower seeds, mints. His: bread, sliced cheese, ham, toothpaste, eggs (all Tescos non-branded varieties). Mine: lunch for the next couple of days so I can write through lunch. His: shopping for the week, splashing out on giro day. In his hand is a tiny piece of paper, not much largers than a postage stamp with tiny biro'd numbers on it. He gestures towards his economy value pile and tells me that those eggs are 88p this week, he inspects his tiny list. They were only 84p last week. Credit crunch he tells me, nodding slowly. Fuel prices, raises eyebrows. Hope I've got enough. His entire basket comes to £3.08. Hands the cashier exact change.